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VentureBeat has first details on Intergalactic Space Empire, a new
indie game being created as a solo project from Chris Taylor, the ex-CEO of Gas
Powered Games. This is a simplified real-time strategy game that can run in a
browser, which dovetails with the other news that this works with a new cloud
gaming platform he's creating called Kanoogi.
Chris tells them: "games running on the Kanoogi platform are specially designed
and optimized to play on virtually any device that runs an updated web browser,
or around two billion devices." Additional details on these plans is expected
later this year, and in the meantime, here's more on the game and the new
service:

The game is a 2D, top-down title with fast action. If you send
someone a link to your game, your friend could join you within seconds, Taylor
said. Interestingly, it’s a very different approach compared to Google Stadia,
which will compute the game in the cloud and send compressed video to the
player.

Taylor’s platform uses processing in the end device, which makes for snappier
graphics, he said. The game will feature thousands of projectiles moving all
over the screen, but he said the platform won’t dwell on high-end 3D graphics.

“It’s my next RTS game, which takes place on a single galactic map and has a
number of innovations,” Taylor said.

The platform will also deliver most games within a few seconds, without any
significant loading times. And Taylor said that the game will run on all
browsers, from Chrome to Samsung TVs. Technologies like Google Cloud and Amazon
Web Services make this possible. But rather than rely on Javascript as some have
done in the past, Taylor uses compiled C++, running natively inside a virtual
machine in the cloud. The rendering still happens on the client devices.

“I’m happy to say the browser compatibility is 100 percent,” Taylor said. “I
don’t drop frames. I don’t get stuttering and stammering like you get in a
video. I’m very happy with this architecture.”

Taylor said his mission is to deliver games, single and multiplayer, to players
around the world without ever having to worry about updates or install times.
Games will move from one device to another seamlessly, even allowing players to
access the same game simultaneously from multiple devices. Game progress is
saved automatically, as the core game runs securely in the cloud, taking no
space on the player’s PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone.